someone wanted to know... so it's your turn to say WTH

"what happened to your gymboree addiction? " good question Laura!

let me start with," HI, I'm Julie and I'm a recovering gymboree addict. "

it all started before i got married, my friend's mom had a baby when we were 18 and we'd go in there to look at clothes for him. and it was right next to the GAP at my favorite mall, so we hit both stores. or walked by just to look.

then my older sisters had a couple babies, and i loved the matchyness of it all.

and then i got married. i was truly addicted to baby GAP and old navy for Peyton, and didn't go into gymboree much but then only 10 and a half months later came Liberty. and what is not to love about gymboree for little girls? i was still addicted to baby GAP but would occasionally peruse the store. but still for the most part resisted. i liked the GAP. we had GAP kids and if it didn't say GAP ( for a while ) Peyton refused to wear it. Yeah! nice. but i was falling out of love with it for Liberty, some of it was too funky, usually in the winter it got funkier and then in the spring it was springy and cute with classic lines and puff sleeves.
the first thing i ever bought for Liberty at gymboree was pink cotton poplin ruffle bum bloomers and a pink gingham puff sleeved top with ruffles around the hem and at that same trip i bought a smocked dress. it was adorable and i was in love.
then i had Paxton, and matching was cute and fun for everyone. everyone coordinated. and the boys matched all the time. but i decided i was sad Peyton looked so old too young. and the gap stuff looked too mature. i wanted Paxton to look like a baby for longer. and lots of the stuff at gymboree looked more babyish, lots of rompers and overalls.

Around that time i had a good friend that became obsessed with all things gymboree. and she even got a job there, AND she shared her employee discount with me. so when the baby gap started having less and less i loved on the clearance rack and Gymborree had more. i was hooked. i worked the sales. and the gymbucks, i have it memorized what sales happen when and when Friends and family rolled around i got a postcard in the mail or a phone call. every store in the East valley had employees that knew me by name. and knew my kids, how old they were and what size they wore. YEAH it was sick.

For Joy i had started buying the blankets and the socks, and purses to match everything for both girls, but by that time Lance was in School, and i used our student loan money to buy the kids clothes. and if i worked it right, i paid less at gymboree than i did at walmart or target, or Mervyn's and i was more satisfied. the clothes were adorable. they washed great, they lasted fabulously for more than one kid and they had matching for more that one size range, i could get matching for a baby and a big girl. and as my kids got older they extended the size range. what luck!

and i was completely obsessed with how the clothes got washed, nothing could be dried, NOTHING, if it did i FLIPPED! yeah , but there was so many clothes, and so many kids and i was so freakishly obsessed , and then i was so tired, and so sick , i couldn't keep up. AND you could only shop in the mall ( no walk up stores) and i was so exhausted after my thyroid removal, and radiation, i just couldn't walk all the way into the mall. then my friend had already ditched me when i got seriously into the cancer treatment. and around that time i got pregnant with Pierce, so i got out of the habit.

why not buy online? i don't pay shipping. nope i refuse. and the couple times i did, they got my order wrong and i couldn't get the stuff in the right size after they'd sent me the wrong thing. plus there is so much more available in store sometimes for sizing, that i didn't think it was even worth shopping online. like I'd see what there was but almost always could find what i wanted in store. and some days I'd go to more than one store in the valley. Scottsdale, then chandler , then fiesta mall. and when i couldn't make that kind of effort i stopped

not to mention the problems my addiction caused in my marriage, Lance hated that i spent every dime i could at gymboree. and yet we already had thousands of dollars in kids clothes sitting around because i was so obsessed with how they were washed that i couldn't bring myself to just freaking wash them. and i wouldn't let him help, for fear that he'd ruin something. so thousands of dollars in kids clothes, that never got washed because i was afraid if i didn't do my obsessive pre-treating for an hour a load there would be a stain.

AT THE PEAK of my ADDICTION- every time there was a function i had to buy new outfits head to toe for however many kids we had, AND, i couldn't just buy an outfit for the kids that needed clothes that had outgrown something, I had to buy matching for every kid, well mostly all the girls. so Joy had all of Liberty's hand me downs, plus her own matching clothes. and HOPE had all of liberty's and Joy's and then her own substantial wardrobe. yeah. OBSESSED. it was out of hand. i passed on other outfits to my sisters but the sheer amount of clothes in our house was crippling, not only because of our family size but because i was buying new clothes every time i turned around, and too ADD to deal with the mountain before me. and then since i was OCD it could've killed me when Lance took 200 lbs of clothes to be laundered when i was in the hospital in isolation, and they dried it all.

so with my cancer and pregnancy right after i learned i couldn't go into gymboree anymore. I still get the emails , and Gybohaven too. BUT i don't go to the mall, and I'm not tempted. the other thing that killed the habit was Lance in the last year of school. we moved out of my mom's house. and into a small student housing house. and there was no money to buy clothes. NO MONEY. i bought Pierce a couple of his newborn outfits, and a few other clearance items. but nothing major. and since then money has been tight. so I'm out of the habit, and there is nothing that has caught my eye . (maybe that's because i don't look really close so i don't know what I'm missing out on)

last year i went in to get outfits for the Easter picnic. they were all on clearance.
but this year I'm thinking Old Navy is the place, or maybe the Children's Place.
for the boys and the girls. for casual at the park outfits.

now i am a recovering gybmoree addict, i could totally become fully addicted again, if say, i was pregnant and having a baby girl. but I'm not so that is a good thing.

yes now if you've read the novel, try not to judge me harshly. the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem?

right.
and things are better, Lance and i fight about other things, and i attribute alot of my triumph to blogging. i am happy to stay home and blog. it's a little social, and a little satisfying. and it saves Lance huge amounts of money, becuase I'm not out shopping all day. which was my main form of entertainment in the past.